


The Elegy of Melody Pond

by ArtemisofEphesus



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode 6x12 Closing Time, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-30
Updated: 2011-11-30
Packaged: 2017-10-26 17:25:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/285949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisofEphesus/pseuds/ArtemisofEphesus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during the final scene of 6x12: Closing Time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Elegy of Melody Pond

**Author's Note:**

> In this fic I really wanted to explore how Melody Pond became River Song after the events of Let's Kill Hitler, because I don't think it was explored in quite enough depth in the show. I don't know why I chose to format it the way I did, it just seemed like the right thing to do. I hope you'll take a moment to read and hopefully enjoy it!

Kovarian is here, hiding in the shadows;

            pale skin lit by moonlight, red lips taunting her and baiting her;

and she thinks there is something just out of sight behind and turns to look but as soon as she turns her head back

                                                                      _there is nothing there_.

 

River doesn't know how she came to be here, how she managed to hunt her down. She couldn't have found her, everything is _wrong_. Kovarian is looking for Melody Pond, but Melody Pond does not exist here anymore. Melody Pond died a long time ago,

                                                                            (along with the other selves that could have been).

 

 

 _I am River Song._

 _  
_

The voice of her nightmares is speaking to her, and her mind is trying to rationalise, to divide reality from fairy tale.

 _It's a story_.

The time lord cannot die, she _will not_ let it happen. He would, but she cannot. Melody Pond was made to kill the Doctor, and River Song will do anything, _everything_ to make sure that it will _never, ever happen._ She has killed enough, but if it must be so, she will kill time to stop it. No matter what they whisper in her ear when she is asleep in her room at Greystark, no matter what triggers they have planted in her mind, no matter how many people

                                                 (eyes bound to prevent them from running)

                                                                         she has _liberated_ on their command.

 

 

 _I am River Song._

 

 

Hands grab her from both sides; the clerics she grew up with, except that now they are not even imagined friends anymore. She can feel

            their cold fingers on the smooth inside of her wrists where the sleeves of her graduation gown fall short; stubby fingernails forming                      half-moons on pale skin,

 

            the small, cold, excited eyes of Kovarian following her, lips stretching into a wide, cruel smile,

 

            the press of metal against her arm, the hiss and the sharp pain that follows, and the wall of bricks that hits her senses as the tranquiliser

            hits her blood stream.

 

She tries to fight, to fight like the always does, to fight (like the Doctor wouldn't), but her legs are across the other side of the room and her hands

                                                                                                                                     have dropped to the floor like dead weights.

 

 

 _I am River Song_

 

 

Her eyes are slipping shut but her mind is still _clear_ , trying to anticipate Kovarian's next move, trying to keep one step ahead in her mind at least. But then she sees

 

a flash of white

 

and her body kicks into overdrive. _No, no... no._ Not again. She can't wear the suit again, she can't bear what it almost did last time. She _can't (can't can't)._ She is

                              River Song now,

                                            not Melody Pond.

Melody Pond wore the space suit, Melody Pond was conditioned to kill the Doctor, the suit was meant for her, Melody Pond,

                                                                    (not for River Song).

 _Please_ , she pleads with Kovarian in her mind, like she had so many times before. _Please don't do this. I'm not Melody Pond anymore. You can't make me be Melody Pond._

Her vision blurs. The light fades from the room. Somewhere, on the shores of a lake, Melody Pond stands opposite her, and turns and walks away. Never looking back.

 _**I am River Song.**_


End file.
